


From This Moment On

by fallingsnow6136



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, Non-Consensual Touching, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Canon, Prompt: If I Can't Have You, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Harassment, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29096295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingsnow6136/pseuds/fallingsnow6136
Summary: Losing Allura was a wound that Lance never thought would heal but a certain blonde Altean is there to remind him that he doesn't have to do it alone. Healing can bring many things - friendship, comfort but for Lance and Romelle, it brings about something neither thought was possible. Love. However, things are never that easy and there is something that threatens to break the strength of their bond apart - will they be able to overcome obstacles that are thrown in their path or will they lose sight of their love and each other? Read to discover.
Relationships: Acxa/Veronica (Voltron), Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance/Romelle (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	From This Moment On

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone. I lost my grandmother eight months ago and it’s a loss I’m still struggling with – so what do I do? I write a story based on it, of course. This is another story that is very self-indulgent. It also tackles the prompt of ‘If I Can’t Have You’ from the Bad Things Happen Bingo and is canon compliant for Voltron Season 8 so I hope you all enjoy.  
> \--

**1\. Take My Hand**

Understanding why something has to happen didn’t make it any easier to heal from it. However, Lance knew Allura would not want him to mourn and instead remember her fondly whilst helping her people and restoring New Altea. So that was exactly what he did along with helping at his parents’ farm back at Earth as a side job when he went back to Earth. There were some nights though where the pain really made itself known and today was one of them. Everyone on Altea was asleep but he sat up in his bed, deciding he couldn’t sleep so he got up and headed to where Allura’s statue was, sitting beside it.

“Things in New Altea have been getting better each and every day, you know,” Lance said softly. “There are Altean schools built finally and we’ve opened it to different alien species. I teach them everything I’ve learnt in my journey with you and Coran has been teaching Romelle and I the Altean curriculum. She’s been helping a lot too and she’s become a real part of Altea now.” His head bowed slightly. “The only thing that’s really missing is you. I know you would have loved to see your home planet again.” His voice choked up at that slightly. It had always been Allura’s dream to have Altea and her people back that when she finally got it back, she didn’t have the chance to see it.

“She can still see it, you know,” A voice interrupted behind him and Lance jumped, having not expected anyone else to be awake at this time of the night. He looked to see Romelle walk over to him.

“Romelle, what are you doing still up?” Lance asked, quickly wiping away the tears that had built around his eyes. He had promised to not show how he felt around either Coran or Romelle or even the other Paladins. He didn’t want any of them to worry about how he still missed Allura when he didn’t have anything to distract him from his thoughts.

“Making sure you don’t cry alone,” Romelle said bluntly before her voice softened. “You don’t always have to hide it, Lance. Do you really think that’s what Allura would want for you?”

Lance shook his head. “I’m not crying. I’m just updating Allura on how things are going.” He knew that was only the half-truth but Romelle didn’t need to know that. She should be sleeping right now anyway.

Romelle sighed, moving to sit down beside him. “It’s okay to miss her, you know. I don’t want to really leave you alone right now so can I stay?”

A part of Lance wanted to tell her to just go to sleep but he couldn’t deny that having another presence near him while he was remembering Allura was comforting. Still, he needed to deal with this alone because Romelle couldn’t possibly understand the mixture of emotions that were circling around his mind and heart.  
“Why?” Lance finally asked. “Why do you want to stay?”

Romelle didn’t reply right away and for a couple of seconds, Lance thought she might just decide to get up and go back to bed when she spoke again.

“Because no one deserves to be alone when they are grieving their loved ones,” Romelle said, staring up ahead. “I had no one there when I lost Bandor because I knew no one would believe me about Lotor. And then I realised what Lotor did to my parents, my aunts and uncles, people who were friends of my family too. I didn’t have the chance to grieve because Lotor needed to be stopped before he could harm Keith’s friends in the same way. Lotor burnt Bandor alive, he was still breathing…” Her fist clenched but she didn’t cry, just glared at the ground fiercely.

Lance didn’t have a reply to that – it was easy to forget that Romelle had lost just as much as Allura because she was so strong and never really spoke about it. And even now she was still trying to help him because she knew what it felt like to be alone in those moments. Somehow with that knowledge, he could no longer tell her to go away and go to bed. He reached out and took Romelle’s hand in his own, holding it loosely. 

“I’m sorry,” Lance said softly. “That we took so long in stopping Lotor from causing all the suffering that he did. But you know, you’re not alone anymore. You have me and all the other Paladins.”

Romelle smiled a bit. “You’re not alone either, Lance. I understand how you feel. It’s okay to miss Allura but you don’t have to deal with that pain alone. No one should have to be alone when they’re missing someone they love.”

Lance had become so accustomed to pushing down his pain of losing Allura to help her people and think of what she had wanted that he had somehow even convinced himself he was okay. He didn’t think anyone would have noticed that he wasn’t. But hadn’t Romelle been alone too when she was grieving over the loss of her brother? Hadn’t Keith and Pidge been alone? Why was he special? He couldn’t explain why he was so reluctant to accept their help. 

‘Lance, would you stop being so stubborn?’ Red spoke in his mind, causing him to jump slightly. 

‘I’m not being stubborn’ Lance spoke back to his lion. 

‘If you let her help you, you can make sure she isn’t alone when grieving’ Red replied as if it were obvious. ‘Haven’t you both been alone enough?’

Lance couldn’t deny that Red had a logical point. He wouldn’t be able to help Romelle mourn those that she loved without looking like a huge hypocrite if he didn’t let her help him. He supposed that wasn’t a loss though. It did feel nice having her check up on him since he hadn’t really been able to talk to anyone about Allura or even visit Blue anymore because it was too much of a reminder that he wasn’t ready to deal with.

“I won’t deal with it alone then,” Lance finally said, squeezing Romelle’s hand. “I’ll let you help me.”

Romelle blinked. “You will?” She sounded a little taken aback. “You’re not going to push me away too?”

“Well,” Lance said slightly teasingly. “Somehow I get the feeling you won’t leave even if I do push you away.”

“I won’t,” Romelle said firmly before pausing. “I did think I would have to fight harder for it though given how stubborn you are.”

Lance huffed. “I am not stubborn.”

“Really?” Romelle said with a small giggle. “Being determined to push everyone away sounds pretty stubborn to me.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “I’m responsible for Altea, I can’t do that if I keep leaning on people for support. But I’m letting you help me ok, but I want to be able to do the same for you. You…you never had a chance to grieve over Bandor because of everything that had happened or your parents, so I want to be able to be there for you in that too.”

Romelle’s expression faltered slightly as she looked away from Lance. “I…I’m not really sure how to grieve over them,” Romelle admitted slowly. “I’ll always miss them, and I don’t really try to push that away but otherwise I am uncertain on what else to do. None of them really have a place I can go to in order to talk to them.”

“Then why don’t we make one?” Lance said simply.

Romelle blinked. “Make what?”

“We can make a memorial for the lives lost due to Lotor’s greed of quintessence,” Lance said simply. “We can make gravestones for all of them. I’m sure Keith and Krolia would be willing to help as well. That way, when you want to remember them, you can go talk to them.” He knew it wasn’t much but Romelle deserved a chance to mourn those she had lost because at least he and the other Paladins did have the chance to mourn Allura. He didn’t know how he would have coped not even having that.

Romelle slowly brought her gaze to meet Lance’s. “Is that really ok?”

Lance smiled. “Of course, it is!” His expression softened. “So, will you let me?”

Romelle felt a lone tear run down her cheek, a small smile coming to her face as she simply nodded, not speaking but just this once, words were not necessary for Lance to understand. He squeezed her hand back, knowing what he had to do next and for the first time since Allura’s death, he didn’t feel so alone. 


End file.
